"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."
Edmund Burke. What happened on this Day in History?

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

This Day in History: Oct 16, 1991: Twenty-three diners massacred at Texas restaurant

George Jo Hennard drives his truck through a window in Luby’s Cafeteria in Kileen, Texas,
and then opens fire on a lunch crowd of over 100 people, killing 23 and
injuring 20 more. Hennard then turned the gun on himself and committed
suicide. The incident was one of the deadliest shootings in U.S.
history.

The rampage at the Central Texas restaurant began at
approximately 12:45 p.m. and lasted about 15 minutes. Witnesses reported
that the 35-year-old gunman moved methodically through the large crowd,
shooting people randomly and reloading his weapon several times.
Hennard, of nearby Belton, Texas, was shot several times by police
before he committed suicide. No clear motive for his actions was ever
determined.

In the aftermath of the Luby’s massacre, Killeen
residents urged officials at Luby’s corporate headquarters to let the
restaurant re-open so people wouldn’t lose their jobs. Five months after
the shootings, the cafeteria was back in business and stayed open for
nine more years before permanently shutting its doors in September 2000.
Another outcome of the Luby’s massacre was that in 1995 the Texas
legislature passed a law allowing residents with gun permits to carry
concealed weapons. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, who was at Luby’s with her
parents on the day of the massacre and watched as they were murdered,
was instrumental in getting the law passed. Hupp had a handgun with her
that day, but left it in her car to comply with the law that forbid
people from carrying concealed firearms.